Patients go to health care providers for treatment of health problems. Health care providers include physicians, technicians, and other healthcare personnel and the offices they work in, including offices, clinics, and hospitals. A patient visit to a provider is known as an encounter.
Patients typically check in at a reception or front desk. Front desk personnel issue devices or tokens that identify the patients for the duration of their encounters. Patients may become dissatisfied with long lines at the front desk, especially those who are sick or uncomfortable.
It would be desirable to provide a system and method of issuing patient identification devices that overcomes these problems.